Q2: Auditorium, Fields, Cafeteria, Gym, and Parking

Explanation: Following the last large capital project MSAD 15 introduced in June of 2016 — where the voters agreed to borrow $3 million for a variety of building renovations (including a new Chemistry classroom at the high school and four new classrooms at the middle school) but decline to borrow another $3.8 million for new athletic fields and a track (see the Gray results here, to see the ballot questions) — the fields and track remained an issue, with more teams and practices than available space. 

While the district was able to build a track and introduce a new field at the middle school with annual capital funds, the district still had an overuse issue and by 2019, a bond committee was meeting to examine the best way to address those needs and other needs that had been identified for indoor athletic space, indoor theater space, the cafeteria at the high school, and building security. 

You can see an early vision document for the project from 2019 here. As we progressed, we were able to find a federal grant to take care of the security concerns ($600k+ for cameras and new access control at all of our buildings) and buy into a power purchase agreement to get our power mix to roughly 90% renewable and save roughly $20k per year. Partly we had time for this because ... the pandemic happened. 

We were very close to putting forward a bond proposal when our schools shut down in March of 2020. While we might not have made the June ballot, it almost definitely would have been on the November ballot. 

After the pandemic normalized somewhat, we began our strategic planning process, and when we developed and released our new five-year strategic plan in 2022 (which you can find here), we conducted more than 40 focus groups with students, staff, parents, and community members to identify needs and direction for the district. The results were clear:

• High school students identified the cafeteria experience as the worst part of their day. 

• Coaches and athletes, both, identified a lack of training and practice space as a huge hindrance to meeting their goals. 

• Music and arts teachers and students identified a lack of appropriate practice and performance space as a huge hindrance to meeting their goals. 

• The public, parents, staff, and students all agreed that there are not enough good spaces in our district for gathering the community to enjoy student performances of all kinds. 

The MSAD 15 School Board then convened a bond committee made up of board members, staff, and community members to identify the specific needs and create a report (which you can find here). The School Board approved the committee's findings at their March meeting, and then gave the report to engineers from two firms (WRBC for the buildings, Activitas for the fields) and asked for draft documents that addressed the identified needs in as cost-efficient a way as possible. 

The Board, alongside feedback from the bond committee and the public's input at public meetings, worked with the engineers to put together the estimates for the proposal being presented to voters in November. While some specific portions of the plan won't get decided until the borrowing is approved (it's silly to spend money designing every last detail for a project that may or may not happen), you can learn more about each portion of the plan below. 

In broad strokes, the $57 million will provide for the six items delineated in the question:

ESTIMATE OF PROBABLE COSTS 

A. Construction $43,850,503

1. Additions/Renovations

   1. Gym Addition/Renovations $11,896,765

   2. Auditorium/Caf/Kitchen Addition/Renovations $15,216,925

   3. Sprinkler Addition/Renovations $1,194,245

   4. Boiler Replacement/Upgrades to support HVAC $712,690

   5. Fields and Site Development $14,829,878

B. Administrative Costs and Reserve $8,004,156

C. Fees and Services $5,884,476

D. PROJECT TOTALS $57,739,135